Scattered Thoughts

A few quick notes before I drop off to sleep. Summer break started today, so I have no work until Tuesday. Woot! I went to Shinjuku today to pick up a sketchbook, mail some junk to the US (darned expensive! ;~;), and to watch Star Wars. About time. I've been meaning to see it for ages. By lucky chance, Wednesday is Ladies' Day at the theater, so I got my movie ticket for only 1000 yen (a bit less than $10). That's totally comparable with going to see movies in Boston, so yay. Usually it's 1800 yen. @_@

I had about an hour to kill before the 6:30pm show, so I wandered a bit. There's a theater in the area that's putting on 'We Will Rock You: Queen, the Musical'. It was very amusing to watch/listen to the advertisements for it. I also went into one of the numerous arcades and played the best game ever! There's nothing more amusing than blasting zombies with your... keyboard. The game characters even run around with these keyboard devices strapped to their chests. The game isn't even all that old - it's from 2000, and the graphics are quite impressive. The dialog's in English, which leads me to wonder if this was an American game at any point. Nahhh.... There's no way. The game is too nerdy for its own good. Actually, I thought it was pretty fun, although it would've helped if the words were in English so that I wouldn't have to type a vowel as every other letter. That really hampered my gameplaying abilities. XD Ah, that arcade also had DDR, so that makes two places in Shinjuku now! This one was expensive though, so I didn't play.

Anyway, I finally went and got to see the movie. The theater was cool - it was totally a theater at one point. It still had the plush seats and the stage with a screen across the back of it. Much much bigger than the place where I saw the Fullmetal Alchemist movie. Makes sense, I guess. There were plenty of other people, but I had no problem getting a seat. Movie's been out for a while, so I think most people have already seen it. I was clever and bought some meat buns from a department store beforehand, so I had dinner as I watched the previews and advertisements. Japanese ads are funny. They really are something else. I thought it funny that the car commercials all focused on happy drivers/families/people in general. American car ads are all, SPEED! COOL! OMGBUYMENOW! The Japanese commercials had the same elements, but there were people too. Heh. Anyway.

It was really funny. I was totally spacing out through the first few minutes of the movie. I think that my general non-understanding of Japanese has trained me to space out when people are talking. I had to kick myself a few times because the movie was totally in English, and I was busy thinking, "Eh, they're yelling stuff and getting shot at. It's action. It doesn't matter what the actual dialog is." Heh heh. I totally could have watched this movie in Japanese and still known exactly what was going on. It wasn't complicated like the FMA movie. :P Soooooo predictable (except for one little exchange between Yoda and Obiwan at the end about Qui Gon which pleasantly surprised me). But I guess I can't really blame George Lucas - it all had to work out like that to tie in with the original series. I kinda feel like I ought to go back and watch all those movies again.

I feel bad for all the Japanese watching the movie. I wasn't at all impressed by the subtitles that I was able to read. They missed out on so many nuances! It felt very... sterile. Dispassionate. Ah well. I guess it's the same for anything that gets translated. Better than it not being translated at all.

---

I have figured out why I'm going to be single for the rest of my life. Some random guy tried to talk to me in English when I was walking to the theater, but he surprised me and he looked a bit sketchy, so I didn't answer and just kept walking. I should've at least asked if he was lost or something. I feel like a bum now.

Let's take a look at me versus random guys in Japan:

Gaijin waiting for the Narita Express from the airport - Were talking together, too shy to join in
Random foreigner dude that I saw one day at Hitachi - Too shy to go and talk to him
Guy who danced with me at Club Womb - Invaded my comfort zone and I accidentally smacked him. Didn't mean to. Honest.
MIT graduate who saw my ring while I was waiting for the Sumidagawa fireworks - Had a lovely chat for a few minutes. He was an Econ major, class of '81, and was surprised that I was still an undergrad.
Sketchy Indian guy in Roppongi - Treated me like property. I refused to answer his calls (hooray for caller ID). Dares fail. >:(
Random guy in Shinjuku today - Did not respond to his "Hello, how are you doing?" and weird eyebrow-raising-ness

The verdict: I suck! But so do other people!

Sometimes it feels good to hate the world.

---

I think I've figured out why LotR doujinshi disturbs me. It's based on real people. I don't mind weird pairings between anime and manga characters because they aren't real to begin with. But, when people start pairing up their favorite band members (Green Day doujin exists!) or Major League players (I'm totally serious here!), it just creeps me out. So much for being open-minded. XD There are so many things that would never have occurred to me had I not flipped through that Comiket catalog. I feel dirty. ._.

- Flykyr Skysong

Current song: The Postal Service - The District Sleeps Alone Tonight
Current mood: Sleepy